Grand Prix Rock ‘N Racing

Genre: Top-Down Racing

Players: 1-4 Competitive (Local Split-Screen)

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in Rock ‘N Racing Bundle Grand Prix & Rally along with Rally Rock ‘N Racing. It is also included in Rock & Racing Bundle Off Road & Grand Prix, along with Rock ‘N Racing Off Road DX. Additionally, it is also included in the Rock ‘N Racing Bundle 3 in 1 with Rally Rock ‘N Racing and Rock ‘N Racing Off Road DX. If any of this seems confusing, you may want to consult with the handy chart on this page.)

Grand Prix Rock ‘N Racing is a Top-Down Racing game where players drive F1 cars. This game was first released on multiple platforms in 2016 before and then ported to Nintendo Switch in 2018.

Graphically, while Grand Prix Rock ‘N Racing isn’t impressive, it is at least visually nice-looking, with nicely-detailed courses and good lighting effects, resulting in something that looks like a scale model. The music here is also good, with some fitting energetic themes that suit this style of game very well. I wish the same could be said for the sound, which ranges from passable engine noises to an odd high-pitched whine for your turbo boost, to a strange, cheesy announcer, who says things like “kart your engines”.

In terms of gameplay, this is mostly a fairly standard top-down racer, but it is really hurt by a few major flaws that bring down the rest of the experience. Firstly, the controls here are really stiff and unwieldy, and they take some time getting used to.It is really easy to crash and get turned around for the slightest mistake.

This leads to the second major flaw of this game – players can reset their vehicle, but doing so requires it to come to a perfect stop. This isn’t as easy as it may seem, as players will start to go in reverse if they hold down the brake button too long, and must then pump the gas to try to stop the car and… well, you can see how getting your vehicle to stop just so you can right course can be a frustrating and time-consuming affair.

That brings me to the third major flaw of this game – Grand Prix Rock ‘N Racing uses an extremely unforgiving checkpoint system that will see players running out of time far too easily. It’s difficult enough as-is to race in this game, especially when upcoming traffic and turns can come on-screen too quickly to react to. But add to this the fact that even if you’re doing well compared to other racers, you may lose anyway thanks to the timer ticking down. The result is a game that, even when you’ve managed to work past its difficulties, still manages to frustrate and demoralize players.

Really, the one place this game has any potential for fun is its 4-player mode. However, even then, the persistent control issues and broken reset feature make it hard to recommend to others, especially when there are plenty of better options on the Nintendo Switch.

Grand Prix Rock ‘N Racing had potential to be really good – the presentation here is excellent (save for a few odd eccentricities which could arguably be dismissed as charming), but the gameplay is so difficult, stiff, and unforgiving that it’s hard to really enjoy this game. Avoid this game.

tl;dr – Grand Prix Rock ‘N Racing is a Top-Down Racing game that has players racing F1 cars with a visual style that looks a lot like a scale model. While the presentation here is charming, the gameplay is so stiff and unforgiving that it’s hard to enjoy this game. I recommend you skip it and save yourself the trouble.

Grade: D+

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